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Past airport-style metal detectors and uniformed guards, the waiting room chairs outside the family courtrooms of 393 University Ave. are filled to capacity.

Also striking in this Toronto courthouse, on a day in July, is that almost all of the faces are black.

Black fathers, black mothers and, in the case of one couple originally from Cameroon, two dozen supporters, all here in last chance bids to keep children from becoming wards of the state.

Alice and Jean, young professionals in their 40s, came to Canada in an immigration story that has played out for decades: a couple seeking better opportunities for their children. In this case, four of them.

Three years after their arrival, their world fell apart. Their children were taken by the children’s aid society in the fall of 2011. Alice and Jean were arrested and charged with assaulting their two oldest children, a 13-year-old boy and 10-year-old daughter. The criminal charges were dropped three years later. But Alice and Jean, whose names have been changed for this story, are still without their children.

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“They will face an extremely uphill battle to get the kids back,” says Cherry Isaacs-Reynolds, the lawyer for Alice and Jean, adding it’s unlikely a court would uproot children who have been away so long.

The parents have had no access to the children. They’re aware, however, that their oldest boy was caught in a sexual position with a younger sister while in the same foster home. The eldest daughter is in a group home, struggling with suicidal thoughts and on anti-depressants, her mother says.

“Suddenly, children that have been healthy all their lives have all kinds of problems,” Alice says.

The couple arrived in Canada in 2008 after working in Germany, France and the United States. Their two eldest children spent four years living with their grandparents in Cameroon before joining their parents.

Their oldest son was bullied at school, starting when he was 10. The parents clashed often with teachers and principals, demanding they do more. One day, the boy told a teacher his father had hit him with a shoe.

The parents said it never happened. They described themselves as strict parents who at times spoke loudly to their children, using words that might sound aggressive to people not familiar with the Cameroonian culture. Jean admitted to having the boy kneel in a corner when he misbehaved. Toronto’s Catholic CAS took the children in March 2011 and returned them two months later.

To the parents, the idea that an agency could take away their children was unimaginable. They agreed to take parenting courses, but insisted on their rights as parents at every turn. That didn’t help their cause. CAS documents repeatedly labelled Alice and Jean as uncooperative.

That November, Alice says her 10-year-old daughter began stealing and getting into trouble. The parents told her she would be sent to Cameroon to live with her grandparents if she didn’t change her ways. The girl ran away from home. She told the CAS she had suffered repeated beatings at the hands of her parents, a charge the parents deny.

The children were made Crown wards with no parental access following a summary judgment hearing, a controversial step that forgoes a trial. Witnesses are not called to testify or to be cross-examined.

“This is a case where their hands were basically tied behind their backs” says Isaacs-Reynolds. “They weren’t allowed to bring any witnesses forward. They weren’t allowed to do anything whatsoever.”

The summary judgment highlighted the criminal charges against the parents and concluded the children would not be safe in their home. Months later, the charges were dropped.

This past July, Alice and Jean were in family court to try and get their children back. The room was filled with supporters from the African-Canadian community. Alice’s mother had flown in from Cameroon.

In the waiting area outside, the provincial Office of the Children’s Lawyer, which represents the interests of children, was indiscreetly telling another lawyer about the case, in a voice loud enough for others to hear. The parents “terrorized” the kids, the lawyer claimed, adding their uncooperative attitude was the source of much of their troubles. “All they had to do was say, ‘Oh, we over-reacted and we’re sorry.’”

Alice and Jean say they’ll never apologize for aggressively trying to keep their family intact.

“I can’t live without my children,” Alice says. “I’m going to fight. I’m going to do whatever is legally possible to get them back.”

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